While you were Sleeping
by DuchessKenobi
Summary: General Skywalker's reaction to Obi-wan's 'death' was what the council was counting on to convince Dooku of the Master's murder but there were other mourners affected by his death. Duchess Satine and Commander Cody comfort each other in their grief. READ at least the prologue and epilogue of The Duchess Diaries first! #obitine #codine review please :D
1. Chapter 1

This is a companion piece to my story the Duchess Diaries. It takes place during the epilogue of that story. Duchess Satine came to Coruscant to attend Obi-wan Kenobi's funeral. She spent the night after the funeral telling Senator Amidala about her history then in the morning before leaving to go back to Mandalore she decides to stop by the tomb where she meets another mourner... This story will make a lot more sense if you have read the full Duchess Diaries or at least the prologue and epilogue. Also this is the 'nod and wink' version if you would like the 'full on gambit' you'll have to ask for a link ;)

* * *

"So you did find your way here." Satine had made her way back to Obi-wan's tomb for one last visit the morning after his funeral.

Clone Commander Cody who had been kneeling a moment before stood to attention at the sound of her voice.

"Please, at ease," She said the words half in jest but he followed the order automatically. She sighed and put a hand on his arm. "No, I just meant, you needn't jump to attention for me."

He looked down at her hand and then into her eyes and relaxed just a fraction. "Sorry, Sir," he winced. "Er, Ma'am, it's a reflex."

She could see the sorrow deep in his eyes. He truly was not the same man as the bounty hunter who had captured her long ago. He was a young man grieving just like she was grieving. He matched her gaze with and intensity that almost made her look away but at the same time it was like a balm to her loneliness. He covered her hand with his and a spark of electricity travelled through her. She suddenly wondered what other emotions this clone was capable of.

"I think he'd be glad that his friends had someone to comfort each other," She breathed.

He looked unsure. "Am I, er, is this a comfort to you, Your Grace?"

She smiled genuinely. "Yes, Cody, you are."

He answered her with a small shy smile and a nod that endeared him to her even more. Then looking around and remembering where they were he took a step back away from her so they were no longer touching.

It surprised her how much of a loss that simple action made her feel and she almost reached out to him again. Instead she mastered herself and asked, "Where will you go from here?"

"Back to the front, this evening." He looked at her warily, knowing her feelings about the war. "But I have a few hours before my transport will be ready."

After a lengthy silence, Cody cleared his throat and then said, "I'd like to escort you back to your shuttle to make sure you get there safely."

She nodded and followed his lead down the hallway to a lift.

When the lift doors closed he pulled off the helmet and jumped right in to a prepared speech. "When I was back on Kamino before this war ever began. I - I used to imagine that I would go on a quest, like... well, like in the old storyholos. I was going to go and find Mandalore's mask and present it to you."

She smiled, "You know our legends?"

Cody nodded.. "I wouldn't have asked for anything in return, just the satisfaction that I had delivered to you what was rightfully yours." He looked away from her embarrassed.

She was enchanted and her voice softened when she spoke, "If you know our legends then you know if you had been the one to find the mask then you would be the rightful ruler or Mandalore."

He shrugged. "I didn't want all that. Not unless," He looked her in the eyes again with a shy smile. "Not unless I could rule beside you."

Was she correct about the signals he was sending her? Maybe it was reliving the memories of her romance with Obi-wan, or how long she had resisted any other man's attention, hoping they would one day be together again. A hope that was now impossible. Maybe it was just the reminder that she was still an attractive woman at her age, worthy of being desired. Whatever it was, Satine's heart began to beat faster and her mind started to wander.

If he'd been a Jedi and could have read her mind at that moment his armor would have probably gotten a lot more uncomfortable. As it was, she realized, they were still in the temple and if any of the Jedi close by were paying attention they were likely to get an inner-eye full. Heat suffused her cheeks.

Cody's breathing was quickening. With or without the force he must have been able to sense her arousal. His fist slammed at the lift controls to hold it in place before he reached out for her.

She beat him to the punch, grabbing the top of his chest plate and pulling him close to crush her mouth against his. His lips were open to her probing and they tasted each other for the first time. His helmet dropped from his hand and rolled away unnoticed. His arms circled her.

She broke away for a breath, melting into his embrace but then straightened up again. "Not here."

Cody took a step back from her and looked around at the cramped lift. "Yeah." he rubbed the back of his neck with one hand and smiled. "I can't exactly take you back to the barracks."

Satine giggled. She couldn't remember the last time she had giggled. "My shuttle. I came to Coruscant alone."

"I was escorting you there anyway." His eyes roamed over her while he stepped back toward her. "And I could do an extra security sweep, just to make sure everything's okay for your departure."

"I would feel so much safer knowing you had." She lifted her face for him to kiss her again and he did not disappoint.

Cody seemed to be having trouble keeping his hands off her, even when he reached down to retrieve his helmet from the floor. She had to remind him that they wouldn't be going anywhere as long as the lift was not moving and he restarted it with the press of a button and a grin.

When they exited the lift, he had the benefit of his helmet to cover his expression. Satine had to be much more guarded. She had to look down and cover her face with her hand when Master Shaak Ti walked over to inquire after her.

"Yes, the duchess has just been down to the grave again. I was just escorting her back to her shuttle." Cody spoke for her so she only had to nod.

"That's very good of you, Cody," the Jedi Master nodded. If she sensed anything from either of their minds of their intentions she did not give any sign. "You may or may not have heard that General Skywalker and Padawan Tano apprehended the suspect and that he is now in prison."

"I had heard that, thank you." Satine managed. But Cody had not heard. She had forgotten to tell him.

"That's wonderful news!" Cody's helmet expressed no emotion but his hand found Satine's and squeezed it. Satine thought a blush might have crept up into her cheeks.

Master Shaak Ti's head tilted slightly to the side and a frown creased her noble brow. She had worked a long time among the clones on Kamino and could probably sense their emotions better than anyone. Then a smile of understanding seemed to spread over her face. "It is good for you to comfort each other in this time of sadness. I will not keep you."

What Cody took as permission from one of his Generals, Satine took as an insulting intrusion of privacy and she would have told the Jedi so if Cody had not dragged her forward by their still clenched hands.

"Cody," She said softly through her teeth, hoping to make him slow down and show a little more decorum. "Commander," she said a little louder.

He stopped and turned back to look at her. Then he took off his helmet with his free hand. He was beaming and Satine couldn't help but smile in response. Then he glanced to the right and left and seeing that there was no one close by pulled her into the shadow of a statue of one of the old Masters and kissed her deeply.

She indulged him for a few seconds and then pushed him away gently. "Please Cody, I do have a reputation to uphold." She smiled and touched his face. "We'll get there."

"I'm sorry," he gave her another quick, guilty kiss and then put his helmet back on.

This time instead of grabbing her hand he grabbed her upper arm and practically marched her the next few meters across the courtyard. Satine couldn't help but laugh. He stopped and tilted his helmeted head at her.

"Maybe something between rushing me off to make love to me and marching me to my execution," she whispered.

"But I am rushing you off to make love to you," he whispered back.

She smiled. "But not everyone needs to know that." She took hold of his arm this time as if needing him for support and set a slower pace. Mostly she kept her eyes down occasionally acknowledging beings that they passed on the way to the shuttle bay.

They were both silent until they reached her shuttle and she pressed a button on the comm on her wrist for the ramp to descend. "I told you we'd get here." She allowed him to escort her up the ramp. Then as the ramp was still rising back into place Cody took off his helmet and took her back into his arms.

"There you are, Mistress," a mechanical, female voice interrupted them.

Cody had placed himself between Satine and the droid with blaster drawn before she could blink.

LEP-1K0 raised her arms and squealed.

Satine put her hand on Cody's blaster arm. "It's okay. She's mine. I forgot to mention her."

"You're sure?" the clone still tense took a moment longer before he lowered the blaster and put it away.

"Absolutely sure." Satine slipped around him to see to her bunny droid. "1K0 this is Cody. He's checking that we're safe for our return journey."

1K0 peered apprehensively around her mistress at the clone. "You are ready to go home, Mistress?"

"Soon." Satine patted the droid and stood smiling at Cody. "But right now I need for you to go to the cockpit and power yourself down."

"Power down? But, Mistress, what if you have need of me?"

"I'll be fine, 1K0. Now go please."

"Fine. I will go but I do not know about this blaster wielding clone."

"1K0!"

The bunny droid lingered at the door to the cockpit for a moment and then stated loudly. "I am powering down now."

Satine hit the panel to close the door behind her and laughed.

"Sorry." Cody rubbed the back of his neck again. "I get a little jumpy around clankers."

The duchess crossed the cabin and sat down on the acceleration couch regally. "Then I guess I shouldn't tell you that she was a gift from Count Dooku."

Cody tensed, staring distrustfully at the door to the cockpit.

Satine chuckled. "That was a long time ago before he ever had a reason to have a grudge against me and 1K0 has been a friend and has rescued me from danger more than once."

The clone looked at her disbelieving. Satine smiled at him and patted the couch next to her. He came and sat but still sent glances over at the door between them and the droid.

After a long pause Cody whispered, "I was jealous of him." His voice was so low Satine almost didn't catch the words.

"Him?" she asked.

"The General," he admitted. "I wished I could have been the one to rescue you when you were in distress."

Satine really didn't want to talk about Obi at the moment. She initiated another kiss hoping to silence him. It seemed to work for a while, but then he spoke again.

"Then one of the other troopers started the rumour that the two of you had been lovers, which of course is impossible because he's a Jedi and they don't..."

"Cody," she stopped him and decided to be totally honest. "The General and I were lovers once but it was a long time ago, before he was knighted."

"Before..." before Cody had been born or created or however it is clones come into being.

"And never since we went our separate ways. We both had our lives to live."

He kissed her again before she could say any more, but then he asked, "You miss him?"

"Of course I do. He was a good friend."

Cody nodded, "He was a good General."

"Cody," Satine smiled sincerely at him. "I want you to know that I wouldn't have gone off with just anyone, that you weren't conveniently in the right place at the right time. Or maybe you were I..."

He nodded waiting for her to finish.

"I mean it. I could never compare you to... What I mean to say is that I don't think you're just... You are unique, Cody, and not just unique among your brothers. You are unique among men."

She saw for just a second his face light up. "My Lady," he whispered and then he pulled her into another kiss.

She ran her fingers through his short, thick hair. "Thank you, Cody, for rescuing me."

"Just doing my..." he looked her in the eyes frowning. "Duty."

She could see the turmoil in him. His life was all about duty, loyalty. But was he to be loyal to her now or still to his General.

Satine suddenly felt a bit of moisture on her cheek and quickly tried to brush it away. She didn't know when she had started crying.

He was waiting for orders but she couldn't, wouldn't order him to stay or go.

"You still love him." Cody stood, placing himself at a more proper distance from her.

She dropped her gaze, in not quite a nod. "Perhaps it's too soon."

"I'll just do that security check." He hurried out of the cabin toward the shuttle's small hold and refresher.

A quiet sob escaped her and a few more tears but she didn't want him to see and she knew it wouldn't take him long to check the safety of such a small ship. She stood and straitened herself up the best she could.

Cody brushed past her quickly on the way though the cabin from the hold to the cockpit.

She wanted to say something to him but he didn't give her the time.

He must have looked over the controls and equipment and then she could hear him reanimate her droid.

"You are still here," 1K0 said indignantly.

Cody responded calmly. "The duchess will be ready to leave shortly. You can prime the engines."

"You are not coming with us I hope."

Satine rolled her eyes and gave Cody a small embarrassed smile at her droid's behavior when he returned. But he didn't seem to notice.

He reached down and picked up his helmet from the cabin floor.

"Cody..."

He interrupted her, "Everything appears to be ready for you journey, Your Grace."

"Satine," she said. "My name is Satine."

He finally looked her in the eye again. "I'm a soldier, Ma'am. I don't have any right to..."

"This war won't last forever. Someday..." but she couldn't really promise him anything. "Survive it, Cody. Live and when it's over find some girl and settle down and have babies and," she frowned. "Clones can have..."

He let out a sort laugh which she took as a good sign, "Yes, Ma'am."

She smiled as well. "Then have a dozen of them and name one after me."

"Yes, Ma'am." He smiled.

Satine sighed. "Now I can't let you leave without a token. Isn't that the way it is in the old stories; the knight rides off into battle wearing his lady's colors?" She began to look around the cabin for something but she had no scarves or handkerchiefs in sight. Her eyes fell on a vase of her favorite flowers and she drew one out and turned to face him again. "Take this, with my blessing."

He silently took the flower with his free hand. His other hand still held his helmet.

She reached up and gently traced the scar over his left eye and then before he could object, pulled his face to hers and kissed him one last time.

"My Lady." He whispered like a prayer. "If you ever need..."

She nodded. "I know who to comm."


	2. unrequited

A few revolutions ago on Kamino...

"Oh look, CC-2224 is reading again."

The cadet looked up and rolled his eyes. "It's Cody, and your just jealous that you didn't pass your target practice early and get time off to do something else."

"Cody, right. He was the gun slinger in one of those _books_ you read," the cadet who they all called Splicer remembered.

"I can think of a lot better things to do with free time than read," the one the called Shag piped up. Because that was pretty much all he ever thought about even though the only females any of clones clone cadets had ever seen were their Kaminoan nurses and teachers. Splicer had hacked his way into the holonet and given his brothers a glance into the wider galaxy. The squad might only be a few standard revolutions, but they had all reached puberty. It just hit Shag a little harder than the rest of them.

"So what is it this time?" Rex, the unelected though obvious leader of the bunch swiped the holobook out of Cody's hands and looked at it. It didn't seem to be the regular battle histories or tactical manual that his brother was found perusing.

Splicer looked over Rex's shoulder. "Fairytales, looks like."

"They're not fairytales," Cody grumbled grabbing for the holobook.

Splicer got a hold of it first and held it out of his reach, "There's a wizard in it."

"He's kind of like a Jedi," Cody fought his way past his other brothers to get the book back. "He helps the knights to fight battles and monsters."

"And save the princess." Shag's eyebrows rose. "Bet the knight gets some of that after the battle."

"No!" Cody finally managed to grab the holobook and checked to see if his place was still marked. "It's called chivalry. The knight only admires the princess from afar. He pledges his life in her service but his love is unrequited."

The other cadets laughed and Cody blushed but Rex clapped him on the back. "It's probably like, what do you call it? A metaphor. Like we all pledge our service to the Republic but i doubt even Shag could..."

"The whole Republic?" Shag stared off into space. "I could sure try."

They all laughed again and Cody nodded his thanks to Rex.

"Where do you think they'll send us if the Jedi ever get around to calling us up?" Splicer asked. This was always what their conversations returned to. What were their squad and all of their thousands of brothers meant for?

This was a topic Cody could expound on. He had done the research. But the fact was there wasn't any war going on in the galaxy currently that would require the size and scope of the clone force that they were a part of here on Kamino. Cody put his holobook under his pillow retracted the bunk. "My credits are still on Mandalore."

Shag smirked and Splicer rolled his eyes.

"No, here me out," said Cody. But they had all heard his theories before. "The Jedi and the Mandalorians have been at war either on the same side or against each other hundreds of times." Cody particularly liked the stories of Revan and Canderous, the Jedi and Mando warrior who had been enemies and then became friends and together saved the Republic. At it made perfect sense to him as it was the Jedi who ordered the creation of the clone army and the man they were all modeled after came from Mandalore. Or at least that's what Cody thought. He had his brothers had seen their 'father' once when Jango Fett had made the rounds to see the progression of the troops. His armor was definitely Mandalorian. Cody had done research on armor and weapons also.

Shag grinned. "So this has nothing at all to do with the Mandalorian's current leader."

"What?" Cody asked dragging his mind away from long ago battles.

Splicer laughed, "Yeah, you weren't thinking of pledging your code of chivalry to the princess, er duchess of Mandalore."

"No! Of course not." Cody dismissed the idea but he still blushed faintly. The recent Mandalorian Civil War did play into his theory. There had been Jedi sent to protect the duchess and if truth be told, the cadet would gladly pledge to protect the honor of the woman they had seen in the holonet story, even if she was a pacifist and she would probably hate him for being created and trained specifically to be a soldier.

Shag whistled. "That would be a damn shame to go unrequited."

Cody, without another thought, punched him in the mouth. "The duchess is a real lady not some Twi-lek trollop!"

Rex smiled, "So you would fight to defend her honor?"

"Maybe I would." Cody rubbed his knuckles where they had scraped against Shag's teeth. His brothers need not know that Mandalore's duchess had been the subject of his dreams on more than one night and that upon waking from those dreams he had required a trip to the refressher and a change of shorts. He blushed a little deeper but Rex saved him again.

"Well I heard that the Jedi can see the future. I think they'll have seen something a lot bigger than one planet's Civil War to warrant the creation of all of us. When they do call us up, I don't think it's going to be like anything in any of the history books."


	3. General Misconceptions

This bit begins the morning after the Epilogue from "The Duchess Diaries" And we finally get to see a bit of Obi's point of view. enjoy and pleeeeeease review.

* * *

Obi-wan was rather disappointed when he woke to find the bed next to him empty. Satine was already up and dressed, sitting at the vanity doing her hair in some ridiculous up-do. He liked it so much better when she left it down and was thinking of undoing all her work and enticing her back to bed when he noticed her reflection smiling at him.

"Morning, Luv."

He sat up stretching, "Were you just going to leave without saying goodbye?"

"Of course not," she turned on her stool to face him, fastening the clip in her hair, and then crossed to sit on the edge of the bed. "But I do have to get back sometime." She leaned over to give him a kiss but he pulled her down into his arms.

"Not immediately though." He brushed her thoughts with his mind. She was dreading their eminent goodbye trying not to make it harder than it had to be. He let her go reluctantly.

She sat up again, patting her hair, and brushing a few nonexistent wrinkles from her clothes. "You'll be heading back to Coruscant, then?" She was trying to hold it together. "You said something before about the halls of healing."

Obi-wan rose from the other side of the bed, began to locate his clothing, and dress. "Actually I don't think they could have nursed me back to health any better than you've done. I was thinking of going right back to join my troops."

"With no warning? They'll think they're seeing a ghost."

"I should hope it will be a welcome surprise." He smirked and pulled his tunic over his head.

"You don't think your little deception will have bothered them at all?" Her sudden change of tone surprised him. She was standing now with her arms crossed over her chest. "Especially so soon after Umbara."

"Umbara? Where did you hear about..."

"Did you know your Commander got leave to come to your funeral? He missed them actually laying you to rest but Cody did come to pay his _respects_." The name 'Cody' had a strange sound coming out of her mouth but the bite with which she said the word 'respect' revealed that she thought he deserved none of it. And then she closed her eyes and put a hand to her temple as if she had a sudden headache.

Afraid that she was in pain Obi-wan again attempted to brush her mind with his own but where she had been so welcoming to him earlier, he now met with a permacrete wall. He walked over to her and laid a concerned hand on her shoulder. "I'm sure my men will understand that the deception was a necessary part of the plan that the Council..."

"The Council! They all knew, didn't they, that you weren't really..." She pulled away from him and for a moment a spike of anger broke through the shield her mind had built up. It was a spike of anger that he had the distinct impression was specifically directed at Master Shaak Ti.

Obi-wan was utterly baffled. He had no idea that Satine had ever met the Togruta Master nor why she would harbor such animosity toward the woman. He let her have a moment to collect herself while he finished dressing.

"I'm sorry, Obi," she finally said. "I didn't want for us to start arguing again."

Glad she was speaking to him, he approached her. "It seems to have become a bit of a habit."

She smiled sadly and cupped his stubbly cheeks in both her hands and then wrinkled her nose at the roughness.

He grinned and pulled her into a kiss, finishing by scraping his cheek against hers and enjoying the sound of her squeal.

She didn't pull out of his embrace this time, but she did look at him plaintively, "Seriously though, Obi. Take it easy on your men when you go back to them. They've been through so much."

"By 'them' do you specifically mean, Cody?" he ventured.

She looked wary and then winced again as if blocking him from her thoughts was causing her physical pain. Then she kissed him as if to stall or soften a blow. She must know that all this only made him more curious.

"Obi," she began slowly after the kiss, not quite looking him in the eye. "When people are grieving and I mean regular people, not Jedi." He understood she didn't mean any disrespect. She was probably put off by the reaction of his fellows at his funeral. "They will very often turn to someone else who shares their grief for comfort."

"Am I to understand that you comforted Commander Cody in his grief?"

"And that he was a comfort to me."

He was fairly sure that wasn't the whole of it but he merely nodded. She was still shielding him from the details. But she was a grown woman and they didn't really have any hold on one another. She was entirely free to comfort or be comforted by anyone she pleased, especially if he was dead at the time.

"It's just bound to come to him as a bit of a shock that you're back," she continued. "So, you might want to give him some warning."

Suddenly, Obi-wan found the whole matter hilarious and he burst out in laughter.  
"Oh, Obi-wan don't!" She swatted him on the shoulder but he just pulled her closer and kissed her again.

* * *

So he had managed to convince her to come back to bed with him once more, which had nothing at all to do with being jealous of whatever time she had spent being comforted by his clone commander, because he wasn't. They separated on good terms with him promising that he wouldn't embarrass her or Cody and that if she ever had need of him he would come running. He also took her advice and sent a com ahead to the 212th before his arrival.

Overall, Obi-wan would have said his welcome back by the troops was positive. As soon as they had got wind of his being alive however some of the wildest rumors had spread through the ranks. He had to spend most of his briefing assuring a few of them that he hadn't in fact killed Hardeen and somehow used the bounty hunter's corpse as his disguise. Even without that rather grizzly addition, they still seemed to find his adventures to be remarkable.

He had more to learn from them about what they had been doing in his absence. It was during this more subdued recital that the General noticed his commander standing off to the side not taking part in the discussion.

Obi-wan had expected that Cody might tend to avoid him and perhaps be a bit embarrassed at their first meeting. He had not anticipated the anger that seemed to radiate from the clone, who kept his helmet on and arms folded over his chest for the entire briefing.

The commander didn't say a word until the meeting had broken up and all the other soldiers had left the room. When they were alone in the room he took off his helmet but kept looking down into it as if the answers he sought could be found in its depths.

"Does she know you're alive, Sir?" he asked, obviously trying to hold his temper.

"She?" Kenobi asked.

"You know who I mean. The duchess, did you let her know you're back?"

"Yes, she knows."

Cody seemed to relax just a fraction. "And she's alright?"

Obi-wan realized something then. "You're in love with her."

"Hardly matters now that you're back from the dead, does it?"

"You're angry with me for being alive?"

"No, Sir," the clone spat. "If your being alive makes her happy then that's all that matters."

The answer surprised the Jedi. "But you're still angry with me."

Cody finally looked up at him and Kenobi was almost sure that the clone's eyes were glossy with tears that he refused to shed. "This whole time I've been thinkin' that I should have been there. That I would have taken that sniper's blast. I would have died in your place so that her heart wouldn't have to be broken."

Obi-wan didn't know what to say.

"You didn't see her crying, Sir." Cody scrubbed away an errant tear. "And come to find out that it was your lies... I might just be a clone... I'll never deserve her. But you, Sir," He pointed at his general accusingly. "If you would treat her that way, you don't deserve her either."

Kenobi knew he should tell the soldier to stand down, that he was out of line for speaking that way to a superior officer but he couldn't form the words.

"Yes, I love her," the commander's voice softened. "and holding My Lady in my arms just once is something I will always cherish, but she loves you. If keeping you alive will make her happy that will be my mission till my dying day." Cody stood at attention, his jaw set firm, waiting, as aways for orders.

Obi-wan was staggered. That was love. It wasn't sex and it wasn't the attachments that the Masters had always warned them about. Love was sacrifice and it was the reason, he was sure now, why Satine had never asked him to leave the order. She loved him enough to sacrifice her own happiness and let him do the work he needed to do.

"You're right." The General placed a hand on the other man's shoulder before he fled the room to his own quarters for some serious meditation. "I don't deserve her."


	4. Codine

Song lyrics by Donovan

An' my belly is cravin', I got a shakin' in my head  
I feel like I'm dyin' an' I wish I were dead  
If I lived till tomorrow it's gonna be a long time  
For I'll reel and I'll fall and rise on codine  
An' it's real, an' it's real, one more time

So far Cody had managed to focus when focus was needed. He was still able to perform under the pressure of battle surrounded by the scream of blasterfire. It was when things got quiet that all he could think of was her. Whether it was in his own quarters, twirling the stem of the flower she had given him between his fingers or like now sitting at a table by himself in the mess, picking at rations that lacked all taste after the sweetness of her lips, he couldn't get her out of his head.

She was a spice that he would always crave. He knew if he could go back, he would have never left that lift. She had said the words, "Not here." But the look in her eyes had said she could have liked him to take her anywhere. How he had wanted to just press her up against the wall then and there. And when he had bent down to pick up his helmet and the sight before him was those shapely legs clad in skin tight fabric, the only place he wanted to be was between those legs.

His imagination took him further than the actual events as they transpired. If only he could have held her close without all his armor in the way. He would have loved to explore every curve of her with his hands, his lips...

The crash of a mess tray beside his table woke him from the daydream.

"Damn." The General knelt down to pick up his cup and silverware and food items that had scattered across the floor.

"Here let me..." Cody rose from his seat to help.

"No, I've got it," Kenobi force pulled everything back onto the tray in a jumble and then set the tray on the table across from Cody's seat. He took the chair not looking at the commander who still stood not knowing what to do. "Sit."

Cody obeyed.

The general leaned low over his tray. "Could you please try not to think so loudly?" His tone was an attempt at humor but there was a not quite disguised edge to the words that hinted at jealousy of what he had seen in the clone's mind or perhaps embarrassment for prying into those thoughts in the first place.

"Sorry, Sir," Cody frowned down at his tasteless vegetable mash. "I shouldn't have been thinkin' such things anyway."

"No you're welcome to your own thoughts," Obi-wan cleared his throat and the commander glanced up to see a flush rising beneath the new growth of the General's beard. "It was my own fault for... Cody, I've been curious about something."

Cody became defensive. "We didn't really do any more than kiss, Sir!"

"No, no please it's not that," Kenobi waved away the confession. "It's um... Master Shaak Ti. Was she..."

"She was at your funeral." Cody remembered. "And she... she told the Duchess and I that it was good that we could comfort each other in our sadness."

"She... encouraged you then." The General stroked his beard and then mumbled. "While knowing I was still alive."

"I never thought about it like that, Sir."

"Hmmm... explains a few things." Obi-wan rose taking his tray and placing it right into the recycling bin without touching anything on it.

It explained nothing to Cody however. The clone was even more confused now than ever. At least the general didn't seem to be angry with him.

Cody confined his imaginings to when he was certain he was alone and renewed his conviction to protect the general. The General, however, was making this difficult and Cody thought, possibly avoiding him.

Things came to a head when a holo message arrived at the Jedi Temple as a challenge to Obi-wan. The images showed the inhabitants of village on Raydonia being slaughtered by an enemy the general was sure he had defeated years before.

"Let me come with you as your guard," Cody insisted.

Kenobi was adamant, "No Commander, your place is here with the 212th. This is a personal matter. One I need to rectify on my own."

"But Sir. I made a promise that I would keep you alive." F _or her_ , he added to himself and perhaps the general knew that was what was implied.

Obi-wan put a hand on his shoulder. "At least I know she'll have someone to lean on if I don't make it back."

"Surely, that won't be necessary," Cody hurried to reply. "You've already beaten him once."

"Let's hope that's the case."


End file.
